Canada claims World Cup women’s team pursuit bronze in Calgary

Canada captured its second women’s team pursuit bronze medal of the World Cup season on Saturday in Calgary.

Ivanie Blondin, Isabelle Weidemann and Kali Christ finished the six-lap race in 2:56.80. Japan claimed the gold medal with a world record time of 2:53.88 while Germany ended up just 0.04 ahead of Canada for the silver.

Canada had moved into second place after they skated in the penultimate pairing, then watched as the Japanese went head to head against the Netherlands. It looked like both of those teams would push the Canadians off the podium, but in the closing metres, one of the Dutch skaters fell, which dropped them to last place.

Blondin and Weidemann previously stood on the podium with Josie Morrison at the first World Cup stop of the season in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Canada now sits second in the women’s team pursuit World Cup standings.

Ted-Jan Bloemen won Canada’s first medal of the weekend at the Olympic Oval when he took silver in the men’s 5000m on Friday.

This is the third of four World Cup stops at which skaters can achieve times and earn points towards qualifying Olympic spots for their country at PyeongChang 2018. The last of those competitions will be next weekend in Salt Lake City.